It’s been a while since I dug into the depths of the internet gurus and checked out some products for you, and today I’m getting started with a review of Matthew Neer’s Fanpage Cashflow. This isn’t a brand new product, but that doesn’t matter.

What we really need to know is, is it any good?

What Is Fanpage Cashflow?

Like all products that use a video sales page, we’re too busy being wowed by flashy cars (in terrible garages), big houses, and screenshots of income. It’s not actually clear for a long time what the product is. We briefly learn in the beginning of the video that it’s a way to get hundreds of fans to a Facebook page, which in turn is going to get us awesome commissions by selling stuff via Fanpages.

First of all…really? That simple?

I run dozens of fan pages and could smell BS right off the bat, but who am I to judge initially without actually checking out the product? Let’s look deeper.

Red Flag Number 1 – Fake Screenshots

Over the years, I’ve reviewed a lot of different junk products, and several legit ones too. As a result, I’m able to spot red flags quite easily.

The first red flag was the income screenshots that you see, and there are many of them.

Here are my issues with these screenshots:

Matt claims to open a brand new Clickbank account to show you “live” income. He then shows you a screenshot from Clicksure. Completely different networks.

Clicksure (where all of the screenshots are taken from) is home to payday loan, binary options, and other scammy products. If you’re going to be taught how to make money from fan pages about hip hop (the one used in the example), then why would your income be coming from the scam networks? The truth is that these are the only screenshots Matt has access to, and he uses them along with testimonials bought off fiverr, to give the deception of real income.

Income doesn’t update live on Clickbank and Clicksure like he claims, so the jump-cuts are deceptive.

This is an example of how easy it is to hire fake video testimonials.

Red Flag Number 2 – You Can’t Pay With Paypal.

This isn’t necessarily a bad sign, but it’s definitely a flag. Paypal tends to ban countries or networks that are operating too many fraudulent systems and scams.

Pretty much everything o Clickbetter receives a negative review from us, including this product, so that in itself should be a red flag for you.

Red Flag Number 3 – Ludicrous Claims

Do you really think you can make millions just off a Facebook Fan Page?

Look, money can be made of fan pages, and millions can be made online. I make a full-time living online so I know this to be true. However, the idea that you can just make these quick, easy, bucks by making money off a Facebook page is pure falsehood.

A lot of hype comes around fanpages and when you see these viral fanpages being shared all the time, you can’t help but feel that there must be something to it. Maybe people really are making millions off them. It’s an easy assumption to make.

Unfortunately, these claims are also made in order to play into your fears of having to work hard, your desire to make money without a website, and your get rich quick mentality. I’m not saying you are a “get rich quick” kind of person, but let’s face it, we all like that idea.

What’s Inside The Product?

Well, for $39, not a lot.

In all honesty, the methods taught there are nothing but rehashed methods on how to build a fanpage and how to put affiliate links in fan pages and so on. You can find all this information for free elsewhere.

The only thing missing is reality.

You could browse the Internet now and research “How to make money from Fan pages” and you would definitely find something good. Most likely you’d find the original sources that this Fan page Cashflow training came from. The problem is, these people will explain that it takes time, hard work, and value. This is the opposite of what Matt is claiming.

You would do well to stay away from this product, research some free information about building fan pages and audiences, and then actually put in the work to grow your own business.

So What Next?

The only truth to this training is that you CAN make money online, and you can make a lot. Want to know how I did it and how I still do it? I’ve explained it all here.

Read this post, and learn about how to really make money online, and why a fanpage is just a small part of it.

Here’s What You’ll Learn:

What MLM is.

How MLM works.

And my personal opinion on the subject.

Let’s get started.

What is MLM?

According to Wikipedia, Multi-level marketing (MLM) is a marketing strategy in which the sales force is compensated not only for sales they generate, but also for the sales of the other salespeople that they recruit. This recruited sales force is referred to as the participant’s “downline”, and can provide multiple levels of compensation.

MLM is certainly a real way to make money online. Meaning, people really make money this way.

But you know what?

Hundreds of marketers have created MLM programs that are nothing more than pyramid schemes.

Pyramids scheme = scam.

Which is the reason why you’ll have to be extra careful if you decide to go the MLM way.

create high-quality content– this could be blog posts, infographics, video, etc. But it’ll have to be helpful to your target audience (the people in your industry). If your niche is weight loss for women, you’d only create content for women who want to lose weight.

drive targeted traffic – this can be through search engines (like Google), other blogs, social media, online communities, etc. There are dozens of traffic sources and strategies.

monetize – this could be through your own product/service, affiliate offers, ads, etc. The beauty of blogging is that you can have multiple income streams. Meaning, you can earn by promoting products, selling your own products, and run a premium membership site, all on the same site. (But I wouldn’t recommend you go all out right away. Build an audience first.)

05: It’s Not Just About The Money

Another important tip that I would like to share with you is that email marketing is not just about making money.

If you are constantly selling and spamming your readers, you can expect a lot of unsubscribes.

Make sure you treat them with respect and remember that they are human too. Don’t bombard them with emails about offers and promotions.

I am sure you’ve been on an email list like this before and chances are you are not there anymore. See my point?

In the email sequence I mentioned above, I only mention a product two to three times throughout the whole series. That’s it. The rest is just educational content that I think will help my audience.

The ideal ratio for offers is 5:1, meaning for every 5 emails you send out without a promotion, you can send out 1 offer.

That is the “formula” I’ve been using and so far, it’s working.

06: Use Email To Build Relationships

Once your email list starts getting bigger and bigger, you can expect to start getting some subscribers replying to you with their questions and concerns.

Do not ignore these people.

If you think about it, this person took the time to read your email, digest your information and now wants to know more about what you have to say.

This is awesome. This means your email marketing campaigns are working and you can rest assured that the ones that interact with you (and you with them) will likely be becoming a customer of yours soon.

So never neglect them or take too long to answer.

A Short Summary

Those were my tips for you today. Here is a quick recap of what you need to do to start a successful (and profitable) email marketing campaign:

Start free using MailChimp.

Start early (start collecting emails as quick as you can).

Offer something in return (this will increase signup rates).

Create a super awesome follow-up sequence with great content.

Remember it’s not just about sales. Do not spam your subscribers.

Use the replies you get to build a relationship with your audience.

In Closing

Thank you very much for reading. I hope this little blog post has helped you to understand better the “art” of email marketing.

I would like to thank Julian for allowing me to share this information with you today. It’s been a pleasure writing for this amazing blog.

Special Note

Here’s what happened…

First, I received an email where I had to click a link to confirm that I was real.

Then I was brought to a different site, EasyTechVideos.com.

Next, I waited for the “3 brand new products” they said they were going to give me on the WakeUpToCash page. After about 20 minutes, I said, “f**k it” because I knew they weren’t coming.

So, I went ahead and entered my email address on the Easy Tech Videos page.

But before that, I noticed something…

Their copyright is outdated (2010-2011). So that means they haven’t updated their site in a while.

Anyway, when I got to the EasyTechVideos main page, I wasn’t impressed. It’s basically a long sales page that tries to get you to buy a $197 product that promises to make you rich with little to no work.

Review Summary

Product Name:

Survey Junkie

Product Type:

Survey Site

Price:

$0

Summary:

Survery Junkie does not offer their own surveys. The surveys on their site are from companies they're affiliated with. Meaning, every time you complete a survey OR register with a survey company, the guys at Survey Junkie will earn a commission.

Rating:

NOT Recommended

Site Note: Surveys are a real, legitimate way to earn money online. But the time and effort is nowhere near worth it. It takes time to find a survey you qualify for, and even more time finishing it.

Are Online Surveys Worth Getting into?

Online surveys are created by companies to do market research. They pay people to take their surveys so that they can learn what their target audiences are interested in.

How much do they pay?

These market research companies really do they cold hard cash to get people’s opinions.

But the amount they pay isn’t something to get excited about.

Most of time, you’re only looking at about a dollar per survey.

Now think about it…

The average survey takes about 5 – 10 minutes, right? And maybe another minute for the “pre-survey.”

You know, that little survey before a survey. The one that determines if you’re the right type of person to take the survey.

Anyway…

If the average survey takes 7.5 minutes and pay $1 per, that means you would have to complete at least 80 surveys to make $80 per day. That would add up to 10 hours. And that’s not including the browsing, waiting, and loading times.

The next thing you’re going to do is write down ideas that are more narrower right under or beside the broad topic.

For example, under my video game idea I’d write down Xbox One controllers.

Alright, so go ahead and write down some topics that aren’t too broad. Try to aim for at least 2 per.

When you’re done, you’ll have a list that looks like this:

See that. They’re all not that broad. They’re all specific.

Why do we need to do this?

If you go with a niche like “clothes” you’ll have a hard time reaching authority status. It can take you years to become successful.

Even with Google, the largest search engine in the world and possibly the biggest source of traffic, you’ll have a hard time at ranking on the first page. Even a harder time at the top 3.

Alright, moving on…

Step 2 – Open up a Keyword Tool

You know what this is, right?

A keyword tool is a tool that gives you search data from Google (and other search engines). For instance, the Google Keyword Planner, you type in a keyword term or phrase and it gives you how many people search for that term (on average).

There are a few free keyword tools available online. Here are the 2 I suggest you use:

And then when you’re done with that, you’ll get an email from the AdWords team. In this email there will be an activation or confirmation link. Click that and you’re done. Easy.

When you get to the AdWords page, there’ll be a menu right at the top. Click “Tools” and then “Keyword Planner.”

And then you’ll land here:

OK, now this is where the fun begins. Niche research 101!

Well, more like keyword research 101, but who cares. We’re researching niches!

Click on the first tab under “Find new keywords.” It’s the one that says “Search for new keywords using…”

Then type your first niche idea into the first area and then hit Get Ideas.

Please note that all the other settings are optional. I usually don’t use them, but in the screenshot below I put Sony Playstation into the product category field. You don’t have to do this with your ideas.

Now the tool is generating keyword ideas and how much searches they get.

But you’ll still have to do one more thing before you get your data. And that is clicking this button:

OK, now you should see a bunch of keyword phrases and numbers. This is good.

This is where you’ll find how many people are interested in your niche idea. You’ll also find out new ideas by taking a look at the list of keywords.

If new ideas pop up, write them down in your list along with their number of searches.

Do this with every item on your list of niche ideas. And when you’re done, you’ll have something that looks like this:

This is only half of my list.

Now we move on…

Step 3 – Clean up Your List

So you got a list of niche ideas with their own numbers of average monthly searches.

Now it’s time to clean it up.

How?

I’ll tell you…

A profitable niche is only profitable if there are enough people in it. And by doing the keyword research you just did, you now have the data to determine if people are interested in your potential topic.

So…

To do this you’ll have to go back to your list, look at your numbers, and delete the ones that have less than 1,000 monthly searches.

Like this, look:

When you’re done, you’ll have a list of niche ideas with potential.

Cool?

Alright. Moving on…

Note: If you’re still here give yourself a standing ov. OK, a pat on the back then. Because you’re doing great!

Step 4 – Making Sure There’s a Way to Make Money

In this step you’ll be doing more research. Only this time you’ll be looking for products and affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are programs that are managed by professionals who work for the company so they, the company, can sign people up to promote their products without hiring salespeople. Sometimes though, companies manage their own affiliate programs (a good example would be Amazon).

This is just one of the possible ways you can earn money with your blog.

Becoming an affiliate of a company (e.g, Amazon) means you’ll get a percentage of every sale you make.

For example, you get someone to buy something from Amazon using your affiliate link, you’ll get around 4% of the product’s price tag.

Alright, so, searching for products and affiliate programs is easy. It’s easy as Googling something, literally. And you can do them at the same time because if a merchant in your niche has an affiliate program, that means they have products and/or services too.

So open up Google in a new tab. Then use this search string to find affiliate programs:

Now take a look around the first several pages and you should find results that look like this:

Now, go back to your list and put YES beside the niche idea you just researched IF you found affiliate programs and NO if you didn’t.

Another way to find out if you’ll be able to make money promoting other people’s products is through Amazon.

Note: If you don’t know Amazon, they’re one of the largest stores on the internet and they have their own affiliate program which is called Amazon Associates.

Now do this will ALL of your niche ideas. And when you’re done you’ll have a list that looks something like this:

Alright. So you’ve got a list of potential niches that you are interested in, that have a good amount of Google searches, and that have affiliate programs.

So what now?

Step 5 – Rate Your Ideas

The purpose of this step is to try and cut your list down to about 5-10. And by rating your ideas based on your interest, it’ll help you choose the ideas that stay and the ideas that don’t.

So.

Head over to your list, and from the top, rate each one from 1 – 10, 1 being lowest.

When you’re finished that task you’ll have a list that looks like this:

Next, you’re going to delete the ideas that have less than a 5 out of 10 rating. This will ensure that you’ll have enough interest in the niche you’ll choose later so you’ll be able to blog forever without ever getting bored (and quit).

So go ahead and do that real quick and I’ll see you in the next step.

Step 6 – Organize Your List

In this step, you are going to list your ideas based on their ratings.

Right now, your list probably looks something like this, right?

That’s pretty disorganized.

So what you’re going to do now is basically start a new one. But you’ll put the one(s) with the highest rating at the top and work your way down.

You know what I mean, eh? K.

So in my list, I have two ideas I rated at 10:

make money blogging | how to make money blogging;

and how to ice skate.

But since the “make money blogging” idea has more searches than the “how to ice skate” idea, I’ll have the that idea on top of the list.

Another thing to consider is if the idea has less searches than the one right below it (rating wise), then the one with more searches should outrank it.

Take my list for example…

I have ps4 headphones rated at 7 and basketball jerseys rated at 6. But basketball jerseys has about 8,000 more searches than the ps4 headphones idea. So, I have the jersey idea outranking the headphones idea in my new list.

So fix up your list. Then move onto the 7th and final step.

Step 7 – Making Your Choice

This will be entirely up to you.

I won’t be showing you what to do here. I’ve already done my part by showing you how to research your niches ideas.

So you now have the data you need to make your own decision.

One thing to keep in mind though…

Make sure that there are topics to write about.

Take my “make money blogging” niche idea.

There are tons of blog post topics I could write about. For instance:

how to start a blog;

how to write blog posts;

WordPress related topics;

getting traffic;

getting ranked in Google;

and a lot more.

How about in a niche like ps4 modded controllers?

Here’s a niche that’s much more focused on products.

And would be considered a niche site. But it still is a niche that you can blog about full time.

So what type of content would you write about in a niche like this? There are:

product reviews;

product comparisons;

reviews of sellers / merchants;

how to’s (product tutorials);

top 10’s;

and a lot more.

So think about that before choosing your niche.

Conclusion

The niche is the most important to a blog’s success. Even more important if you want to blog about it forever.

The niche you choose:

should have a good amount of monthly searches;

should have an affiliate program;

should have plenty of blog post topics;

and should be something you are real interested in.

Without any of these things, your blog will become a failure…

You won’t have anybody visiting without the good monthly search numbers.

You will lose an important income stream without affiliate programs.

You won’t have any content for internet users to read without blog post ideas.

And ultimately, you won’t feel like working on your blog if you have no interest. And without taking action, your blog will just be a blank white page.

Do you have any questions or comments about choosing a niche? Let me know in the comments below.

The other day I got an email from Jon Morrow of BoostBlogTraffic.com. If you don’t know who he is, he’s one of the biggest names in all of blogging / online marketing.

Anyway…

He was talking about this hosting service I hadn’t heard about.

So I looked into it.

It’s called SiteGround and it starts at a little over $3 per month. It includes a free domain name, domain privacy, and some security from the hackers.

Awesome deal. I highly recommend it.

And that’s the hosting I’m going to with on my new blog.

If you want SiteGround as your host too, you can click one of the following links, Link 1 is my affiliate link (which means I’ll get a small percentage for referring you) and Link 2 is just a straight up link to their order page:

For the title, you can simply do a quick copy and paste from the visual editor to the title.

Now you should have something that looks like this:

Good? Alright. Now you’re ready to hit publish.

The Privacy Policy Page

Hmm. This one’s going to be tough.

I don’t know how to write up a legitimate privacy policy. Even the biggest names in blogging don’t know how. Most of them just hire attorneys to do it for them.

So what can you do?

Well, you have 2 options:

use TermsFeed’s generator and pay $20 to $40;

OR hire someone to take care of it for you.

Either way, you’re looking at paying at least a 20 dollar bill.

If you opt to go with TermsFeed, you’re going to do the same 4 steps you did with the Terms of Use page.

In step 1, you’ll need to choose your country + state/providence/etc.

In step 2, you’ll need to fill out your website’s details.

In step 3, you’ll choose what disclosers will be included in your policy. Here’s what I’d go with:

#1 Can users create an account on your site – This one’s totally up to you. Choose Yes, users can create an account, IF you plan on starting a members only area in your site. If not, then choose No.

#2 What kind of personal information you collect from users? – If you plan on starting an email list (which I recommend you do), you’ll have to choose Email address and Name. If you plan on selling your own products, then check them all. If you plan on doing none of these, then leave it be.

#3 Do you use tracking tools, such as Google Analytics? – Go ahead and choose Yes, we do use Google Analytics and other related tools. (Google Analytics is a free tool that tracks all your traffic – it’s a must-use)

#4 Do you show Google AdSense on your website? – Google AdSense is a program that pays site owners/bloggers to place ads on websites. I have it set to No because Google only pays around 1 cent per click. But if you plan on making money with AdSense, then you better choose Yes.

#5 Do you use remarketing services for advertising purposes? – If you plan on having using these:

Then you should choose Yes + Google AdWords. Otherwise, choose No.

Me, I have it set to Yes + Google AdWords because my niche (moobs) is a pretty competitive and I’m going to have to pay to get my blog out there for people to see without me having to wait very long.

#6 Do you send newsletters to users? – If you plan on building an email list, choose Yes. If not, then go with No.

#6.1 How can users unsubscribe from your email newsletters? – Choose both of them choices.

#7 Can international users (outside yourcountry) use your website? –

#8 If required by law or subpoena, will you disclose personal information of users to law enforcement agents? – I strongly suggest you go with YES on this one. This will protect you from any legal stuff that may happen in the future.

#9 Do you expect to sell your website? – For now, go with NO. You can always change this section in the future if you ever decide to sell your blog.

Done.

In step 4, you’ll see how much you’ll have to pay for your policy. You’ll also have to give them your email address and your payment method.

When you’re done with that, you’ll head back to your WordPress admin area, and just like what you did with your TOU:

Pages > Add New;

paste the HTML into the TEXT editor;

enter the title;

add a link to your Contact page (at the end of the policy);

and PUBLISH.

If you choose to go with hiring a lawyer, it’ll probably cost you 10 times more. So I think TermsFeed is your best option at this point.

Note: You can wait until you get some traffic to get your blog a privacy policy.

Step 7 completed. Wow! That was a long one, wasn’t it?

But you did it! You’re awesome. You should be proud of yourself.

You are now more than 3 quarters done your blog setup.

There are just 3 more steps left.

Don’t worry, combined, they’re not as long as step 7. Hehe.

Step 8 – Configuring / Setting up Your Plugins

So here’s what your plugin-list should look like:

Akismet – done

Autoptimize – needs configuring, but we’ll leave it alone for now

BJ Lazy Load – needs configuring, but we’ll leave it alone for now

Contact Form 7 – done

iThemes Security – needs configuring, but we’ll leave it alone for now

Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions – needs configuring, but we’ll leave it alone for now

Optin Forms – needs configuring, but we’ll leave it out for now

SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam – needs configuring

Simple Share Buttons Adder – needs configuring

WP Fastest Cache – needs configuring

Yoast SEO – needs configuring

Most of these plugins will only take a minute to setup. The rest will take a bit longer.

So without further ado….I always wanted to say that.

Let’s do this!

Note: We’re only going to configure 4 of our plugins.

SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam Setup

This one’s only going to take a minute.

First, go to its settings page…Plugins > Si Captcha Options.

Once you get there, scroll down until you see Akismet. Then check the box, hit the Update button, and you’re done.

Done. I told ya!

Simple Share Buttons Adder Setup

This setup will be another quick one.

There are 5 sections on this one, right:

Core;

Styling;

Counters;

Advanced;

and CSS.

You’ll only have to configure 2 of them, Core and Advanced. Everything else is all good.

In Core, do it like this:

And then go to the Advanced tab. You’ll need to configure 3 settings here…

Now hit the BLUE button in the upper right hand side…

And you’re done.

WP Fastest Cache Setup

Fastest Cache is another easy plugin to set up and configure. In fact, it’s so easy that it only takes a screenshot to show you.

Here’s what to do:

See? Done.

Yoast SEO Seup

The SEO plugin will take a little longer to configure. But it’s still pretty easy. It’s just checking boxes, mostly.

So the first thing you’re going to do is click the SEO button in the bottom left side of your screen. It should be right above the WP Fastest Cache button. And it’ll take you to the General Settings.

Now go to the second tab: Your Info.

This is where you’ll enter your website’s alternative name, and your name/company name.

Here’s how I have it setup:

So go ahead and fill that out and then move onto Titles & Metas.

There are 6 tabs on this one:

General;

Homepage;

Post Types;

Taxonomies;

Archive;

and Other.

The General tab settings is already setup by default. So you can move onto the Homepage tab.

Here, you will enter a short description of your site. You don’t have to go all out here. All your desc. needs is a sentence or two.

Hit Save Changes when you’re done and move onto the Post Types tab.

Here are the ideal settings:

Hit the save button when you’re done and move onto the next tab…

Taxonomies.

There’s not much to do on this one. But here’s how mine looks like:

Now we’re on the Archive tab.

There’s not much to do on this one. But here are the ideal settings:

OK, you’re almost done. There’s just one tab left to go, the Other tab.

In these settings, there’s just one thing you’ve got to do. And that’s check the first box…

DONE!

The next settings are the Social Settings.

All you’ll do here is add your social media profiles to the settings.

But for now, I’m going to leave it all blank because I still have to create social media profiles/pages for my Moob Loss blog.

So if you don’t have social accounts for you blog, obviously you don’t, skip this part for now. You can come back to it when you know which social platforms you’re going to use. K?

Next on the list is the XML Sitemaps.

Most of its settings are already setup. There’s only one tab you’re going to configure. And that’s the Taxonomies tab.

What you’ll do here is check the last 2 boxes, hit save, and you’re done.

You’re almost done. There are still 4 settings left, but you will only need to configure 1: the Advanced settings.

So there are 3 tabs on this one:

Breadcrumbs;

Permalinks;

and RSS.

You’ll only need to go to the Permalinks tab.

Now, when you get there, there are 10 boxes in total. 7 of them should be checked.

Here are the 3 boxes that should NOT be checked:

OK. So check everything else and hit save.

Now your Yoast SEO plugin is all set up. Good job.

You’re almost done your blog setup.

Step 9 – Setting up Your Main Menu

Your main menu will be those set of links you always see in the header area of a website. You know, around the logo.

This is how a user can navigate through a website.

Here’s what to do:

i. Go to the Menus page

The link to the Menus page is located in your left menu, Appearance > Menus.

ii. Create a new menu

To do this, type in a name for your menu (e.g, Main Menu, Menu 1), and hit the Create Menu button.

iii. Add some pages to your new menu

To do this, you’re going to click the Pages tab that’s in the left part of the Menus page.

Now check the boxes for your About and Contact pages, then hit Add to Menu.

You should now see them in the middle part of your screen.

Don’t hit save yet. There are still a couple things left to do.

So…

Go back to the tabs and click the one that says Custom Links.

And where it says URL, type or paste in yours. And for the Link Text, type in either Home or Blog, your call.

Here’s the screenshot:

OK, so now you have 3 links/items in your main menu:

your About page;

your Contact page;

and your website URL.

That’s cool.

But you want your menu to look like this:

So to do this, you’ll have to click on the menu item, your Contact page for instance, and delete all but one word (Contact or About).

Like this:

Did you get it?

Great!

There’s one more thing to do before hitting the save button…

…and that’s checking the Primary/Main Menu box.

TADA! You now have yourself a main menu.

Good job. You are now that much closer to a very successful blog.

There’s just one small thing left to do…

Step 10 – Cleaning up Your Sidebar

Right now, your sidebar looks something like this:

You don’t need all that stuff there. So clean it up. Remove everything (except maybe the SEARCH BAR).

To do this, go to Appearance > Widgets. It’s right above the Menus link.

When you get there, you’ll see the widgets on the left side and the sidebars on the right.

Put your eyes on your main sidebar. It’ll look like this:

Now, delete every one except for the Search widget. You can do this by dragging them (one by one) to the left OR by clicking on their delete buttons.

When you’re done removing the widgets from your sidebar, you can go to your Dashboard, and leave your computer because you have just finished setting up your blog!

The Next Steps

As you know, this guide is only the beginning.

There is still a lot to do to become a successful blogger. These include:

creating quality content;

getting traffic;

building an email list;

building relationships with other bloggers;

getting high rankings in Google;

setting up social media for your business;

and much, MUCH more.

So what should you do?

Well, you should start by writing a couple blog posts. Here’s a guide by Will Blunt that’ll help you with that.

And after you get your first post done, you’ll need to set up Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Having these set up will give you a better shot at getting traffic from Google search.

Plus, you’ll need to learn SEO (search engine optimization). Moz.com has a free beginners guide for that. So bookmark it and check it out when you’re ready.

If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me through my contact page or in the comments below.

And the rest of the search traffic, which is around 29%, goes to the 2nd page, 3rd page and beyond, and the ads.

So as you can imagine, the only way you’d get good traffic from Google is ranking in the top 3 results for a few keywords with a few hundred monthly searches. Or a top 10 ranking for several keywords with thousands of monthly searches.

For example, if you target a keyword that has:

500 monthly searches, you’ll need a top 3 ranking to get around 100 visits;

5000 monthly searches, you’ll need a top 10 ranking to get around 100 visits.

First impressions. They’re important, aren’t they? No matter who you’re meeting, or where you’re meeting, if you make a bad first impression it is more than likely that you will never see or hear from that person ever again.

Now look at it this way…

You’re online looking for an answer to a question. You go to the Google search engine and type your question in.

After browsing the top 10 results, you find one that might have the answer.

Loading… Loading…

…and BAM.

A poorly designed page that only has links.

What you do you?

I know what you’d do…

You’d hit the back button and never return to that site again. Am I right?

Now, what if the page you landed on was different…

An “ok” layout with a black and white colour scheme, and no links. Just text.

Like this:

What would you do?

You’d probably try to read it, right? At least until your eyes start to get sore.

But you’d still end up hitting the back button and erase the webpage from your memory because of how it’s formatted. It’s hard to read, right?

So…

How does a good blog design look like?

Like this:

And this:

Do you want a real life example?

Ok, no problem.

Here’s the Bloggie WordPress Theme by MyThemeShop:

Pretty clean, eh?

And for the content…

Good web content looks like this:

Proper use of subheadings, short paragraphs, a size 14 font, bold and italics, and bullet lists = beautiful.

Review Summary

Product Name:

Affilorama

Product Type:

Internet Marketing Membership Site

Price:

$67 w/ other options and products

Summary:

Affilorama is a membership site that offers training on how to earn a living through affiliate marketing. It's owned by a reputable marketer, Mark Ling. They also offer a few other products that I believe to be very interesting.

I’m pretty sure that you’ve been at it for at least a few hours now (probably more).

Yeah. I know exactly what you’re going through. I’ve been there.

You’re hoping that Affilorama is the one. The one that will help you learn how to use the internet to solve all your money problems.

Yeah. That’s exactly how I felt last year.

It wasn’t until in July 2014 when I found mine – Wealthy Affiliate, which happens to be the #1 ranked program on this website (but all that can change in a few minutes, so keep reading).

Here’s a sneak peak into my Affilorama review:

what Affilorama really is and what it is NOT;

how to gain access and how much it costs;

what kind of training they have;

what kind of tools they offer;

and much more.

By the end of this post:

You should have enough information to decide whether if Affilorama is a scam, or if it’s legit.

So let’s get started…

What is Affilorama?

Affilorama is a membership site and a training program for people who want to learn how to make money online without having to create their own products (aka affiliate marketing).

It was created back in 2006 by Mark Ling, a well-known internet marketer who also helped create Jamorama and Rocket Piano. Back then, it was designed to teach Mark’s affiliates how to promote his products.

Today, it is more than that. Way more.

Today, Affilorama is a community of more than 300,000 members who are all interested in the same things:

to learn how to use affiliate marketing so they can kiss their money problems goodbye;

Affilorama Premium

Everything the free members get – which are the 100+ video lessons, the infographic, and the Quick-Start Guide.

Affiliate Training – this is a monthly class where Mark Ling chooses a topic related to affiliate marketing.

This one’s great if you don’t have that much experience.

Affiliate Blog Bootcamp – this is way better than the 100+ free video lessons but not as good or hands on as the AffiloBlueprint (we’ll talk about that in a second).

The Blog Bootcamp is a 4 week training series that is designed to jumpstart your blog.

In total, it’s 442 minutes of super training. Here’s what it looks like:

Week 1 – Niche and Keyword Research – this is where you’d pick a niche

Week 2 – Website Setup and Off Page SEO – this is where you’d set your site up and also set it up for SEO

Week 3 – Advanced Link Building and Monetization – this is where you’d (try to) get other sites to link to your content/website and monetize your site

Week 4 – Catch up Webinar – this is where you’d catch up on anything you didn’t do and also set your site up for the future

Product creation training – they teach you how to create your own digital product. Which is technically NOT affiliate marketing. But still, it’s a good way to make even more money later on.

Even more training – there are courses on everything you need to be successful – blogging, email marketing, SEO, social media marketing, and even link building for affiliates.

Affiliate’s Tools – there are a lot tools here, 15 to be exact. Some of them are for SEO, PPC, email marketing, and even creating content.

Some of them I wouldn’t recommend using. Some of them are actually pretty cool.

Overall, I think these tools are ok.

Free web hosting – for up to 15 websites. That’s cool.

I’m not sure how good their hosting services are, but I think it’s a good enough web host for beginner sites, at least.

30 high-quality PLR articles – every month. These articles are written by professional writers.

The articles’ topics can be:

how to burn fat;

acne;

pregnancy;

or even sports.

It’s all up to the owners and writers.

Here’s the list of what members can do with their PLR articles:

I’m not sure if these would do any good. Personally, I wouldn’t use them. I like to write my own stuff.

But that’s just me.

You, however, might find them useful (for a new website).

Just be careful of duplicate content. Make sure you don’t copy and paste the whole article. Write it in your own words…at least.

So…

I’m going to give the premium membership a good 4.5/5 rating.

The AffiloBlueprint

The AffiloBlueprint is a huge training course that takes you by the hand and walks you through the process of starting and running a successful affiliate website.

The AffiloBlueprint training is basically the Affiliate Marketing Quick-Start Guide on steroids. It has 100x more detail and is 1000x more actionable.

And at $197 I’ll have to say it’s worth it.

Why?

Because if you follow the training and take action, there is a solid chance at making 10x your investment (per month).

I’m sorry if I sound bias, but it’s true.

If I were a newbie in affiliate marketing the AffiloBlueprint would be perfect for me.

So, if you’re thinking of taking the free training offered at Affilorama I’d say fuck that (sorry). The blueprint is where it’s at.

4.5/5!

The AffiloTools

This a suite of tools that shows you how your website is doing – e.g, traffic, conversions, etc.

I’m pretty sure that you have no idea what I’m talking about. But it needs to be connected to your Google Analytics account,Bing, SEMrush (keyword/SEO tool), Moz, Facebook and/or Twitter, and a couple other ones.

That is why I think the AffiloTools isn’t beginner-friendly.

If I were a beginner looking at the AffiloTools I’d be like “WTF!?”

To be able to understand what the AffiloTools are and how to use them you’ll need some experience first.

But if you’re a more experienced (affiliate) marketer, then I think you’d like the AffiloTools.

It’s basically Google Analytics, a keyword tool, and an all in one affiliate dashboard all rolled up into one program.

There’s no real price for the AffiloTools, yet. It’s currently in beta testing.

So for now, you can get in and check it out for free.

4/5!

The AffiloJetpack

This Affilo-product is crazy…in a good way.

The price tag is big, though. And I mean big.

But I gotta say…

…I think it’d be totally worth it.

Here’s why:

If you go for the AffiloJetpack all of the hard and important work will be done for you.

All you’d have to do is choose a niche, customize your website, and write some content.

Let me break it down:

1) You choose the niche. Or pick one of their well-research niches.

2) You choose a domain name and they build and setup a website for you targeting your niche with their website builder (all it takes is a couple clicks). They’ll provide:

free web hosting for a year

a premium theme for free (AffiloTheme – we’ll get into this in a minute)

3) You customize your website.

4) They’ll give you 90+ emails to send to your subscribers (all in a specific order).

5) They’ll give you a piece of content you can give your readers for their email addresses (clickbait).

But don’t worry. You won’t have to go through that. I’ve got your back.

I am gonna walk you through the whole WordPress admin area.

Cool?

Ok, so let’s get to it:

WordPress For Beginners!

Alright. So, here’s what I’m gonna do here (exactly)…

You see that huge list of links on the left part of your screen?

Yeah? Well that’s your menu. That is how you’ll navigate through your whole WP admin area.

…and I am gonna talk about each and every one of those, including the ones in the top menu.

Let’s start from the top menu…

The WordPress Icon/Logo

The first one (from left to right) is the little WordPress bubble. This is a drop down menu (like most of the menus in the admin).

This is where you can go to the WordPress.org website. This is also where you can go for WP support.

I wouldn’t worry about this icon/menu to much. You won’t be using it very often.

So let’s move onto the next one:

Your Website Name

This part of the top menu is only for the link to your homepage. You can click it anytime you wanna visit your site.

The next ones are:

A quick link to your updates.

A quick link to your comments.

A drop-down of links to add a new post, image/video/audio, page, or user.

And then finally – your profile menu. This is where you can edit your website admin. We’ll get into that stuff though in a bit.

Let’s move onto your main menu…

From the top:

The Dashboard / Home

The Dashboard and Home links are the same.

The first thing you’ll see in your dashboard after installing WordPress is this welcome piece:

You probably won’t be spending too much time on this page.

This is where you’ll be able to read a little bit of WordPress News, and your site activity like unapproved comments and recently published posts.

You can also write up a quick draft – sometimes an idea pops outta nowhere, right?

And that’s basically it.

Tip: Don’t worry too much about the dashboard.

Updates

When something has an update – e.g, a theme or a plugin, you’ll see a little circle with a number beside it.

So when this shows up all you’ll have to do is click it, and you’ll be sent to this page:

(this is where you’ll update whatever needs to be updated)

Posts

Ok, so there are 4 items on this one:

All Posts

Add New

Categories

Tags

Let’s go over them one by one:

All Posts

On this page, you’ll find a list of all your published posts and drafts.

You’ll be able to edit, delete, or view any of them at anytime.

Add New

This is where you’ll be able to create a new post.

Simple. All you’d do here is:

enter your post’s title

write your post

add it in a category

add some tags (if you want)

publish

Let’s go over the 4 tabs – Publish, Categories, Tags, and Featured Image.

The first one, Publish, has the publish button (obviously), the save draft button, and the preview button.

It also has a few settings:

Status – you can have this set at draft or pending review. The only time you’d probably use this is if you a team or writers or a guest blogger.

Visibility – you can set this to public, password protected, or private. This is a good setting for membership sites.

Publish Immediately – you can change the time and date of when you want your post published. You can have your post published an hour later, a day later, or even a year later (if that’s what you want).

Move to Trash – if you don’t like your post or draft, trash it.

The second tab is Categories.

Every post you publish needs to be in its category. For example:

Let’s say you’ve just written a new post, Top 100 Xbox Shooter Games of All Time. So, you’d create a category like Xbox Games right? Or, since WordPress is awesome, you can create a subcategory like Shooters.

The third tab is Tags.

Categories

You can do 3 things on this page:

add a new category

edit an existing category

add text/description to the category page

Tags

This page will have a list of all your tags. And it’s basically the same as the categories page…

…you can:

add new tags

edit existing tags

add text/description to the tags’ archives

Media

There are 2 items on this one:

All Media

Add New

Let’s check them out…

All Media

Right now it’s most likely empty, but when you start uploading images, videos, and even audio, it’ll all be on this page.

And when you do start to get some media, you’ll be able to edit them from here.

And that’s pretty much it.

Add New

OK, so this is one of 2 places where you can upload from.

To upload new media, all you’ll have to do is drop or select the file and WordPress will do the rest. It’s that easy.

The other place where you can upload from is in the post and page editors.

You see that little rectangle that says Add Media?

That’s it. And uploading is he same process.

click it

choose your file

and let it do its work

Pretty easy, huh?

Pages

So there are 2 items on this one:

All Pages

Add New

All Pages

This will have all your published pages and drafts.

Just like in Posts, you can edit, trash, or view any pages that are in your list.